It’s been a great 2013 here in Burnside, Louisiana. I started this blog a year ago in the hopes of exposing the classic charm and history of The Cabin Restaurant, The Cajun Village, and Bernadette’s Restaurant to the rest of the world. Each of these three businesses, and our little community here in the heart of Louisiana’s historic Plantation Country, is something I treasure dearly. The rolling sugar cane fields that hem in the Mississippi, the stately antebellum plantation homes, the charming towns like Donaldsonville in Sorrento – these form a perfect setting for a rich, Cajun culture that has flourished in Ascension Parish for nearly 300 years. I am glad you have taken the time over the past year to read, follow, and fall in love with the community I call home. Here’s to a great 2013 and even better 2014! I can’t wait to share more Creole/Cajun dishes, more Cajun culture, and more Louisiana history with you over the next 12 months.

Last week, the I posted the recipe for The Cabin Restaurant‘s Buttermilk Pie, a surefire hit at any family Christmas feast. Today I’m going to give you another delicious pie recipe that is wholly Southern and perfect for Christmas time: Sweet Potato Pecan Pie. Pecan trees drop their nuts from about mid-October through New Years, so if you live near a pecan orchard or have access to fresh pecans, they will only make the the pie tastier (especially since it is such a labor of love to crack all those pecan nuts!). This is an old Southern recipe, and The Cabin used served pecans pies when it catered at The Houmas House, just down the road in Burnside. Enjoy!

In between Jazzy Jewels and lush foliage of the swamp forest that surrounds The Cajun Village lies an old pirogue. Similar to a canoe, but specifically adapted to the Louisiana swamps and marshes, the pirogue has been an intimate part of Louisiana’s outdoor culture for hundreds of years.

Louisiana is known for its swamps and coastal marshes. However, these waterways are incredibly shallow, preventing normal boats from entering them. Thus, when the French arrived in 1719, they had to ditch their large oceangoing vessels in favor of something more suitable to the waterways of Louisiana. They would have used dugout canoes in the beginning, similar to what the Native American tribes in the area used. Over time, the design of the dugout canoes began to morph into something lighter and faster that required less construction time than a dugout canoe: the pirogue.

When the Cajuns arrived in 1763-64 at the end of the Seven Years War, they headed for the swamps, marshes, and bucolic prairies of south and southwest Louisiana, searching for a habitat that was both peaceful and secluded, much like pastoral setting of Nova Scotia. Having found the setting that they were looking for, the Cajuns settled down in south Louisiana. Unfortunately, roads were essentially non-existent at that point in time; another transportation artery had to be found in order to connect one Cajun community to another and from there to the outside world. The lazy bayous and marshes were perfect for this, and the pirogue was the perfect means of transportation for the Cajuns. It allowed them to hunt, fish, connect with kin down the bayou, explore the serpentine and mysterious waterways, and it could also take them to the larger outposts of the French, such as New Orleans. The pirogue quickly became one of the, if not the most, essential tools a Cajun man could have. Not much has changed in the last 250 years in that respect either.

The design of a pirogue allows it to move through the very shallow water of marshes and be easily turned over to drain any water that may get into the boat. A pirogue has “hard chines” which means that instead of a smooth curve from the gunwales to the keel, there is often a flat bottom which meets the plane of the side. It is propelled by paddles, but can also be pushed with a pole. In Louisiana the boats were constructed of cypress, but unfortunately suitable natural lumber is no longer readily available. Plywood is the common material for modern pirogues. Many modern duck hunters and fisherman in the swamps of south Louisiana use pirogues made of fiberglass, some of which are outfitted with small outboard motors or even “Go-Devils”, a motor with a pivoting drive shaft for use in very shallow waters.

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN 12 YEARS A SLAVE—SEE IT TODAY… (My essay on WHY you should see it–and WHY young people 14 and above should see it..tomorrow along with a piece by my friend Tonya Hopkins (@thefoodgriot on Twitter) on his wife Anne, who was an accomplished cook who supported herself and her family by her culinary skills. Until then, please learn a little bit more about the world of food through the eyes of a free man of color from New York, kidnapped, enslaved and exiled in Louisiana at the height of the antebellum period. Sourced from Documenting the American South run by the University of North Carolina.

Solomon Northup worked in cotton and sugarcane fields and the cultivation of these crops influenced the culture of food he encountered in the Deep South.

After leaving Norfolk the hand-cuffs were taken off, and during the day we were allowed…

Christmas is just around the corner, and and I’m sure you’ll have family coming into town OR you’ll be traveling to a family member’s abode to partake in all sorts of Christmas traditions. No doubt there will be some sort of collective feast, with hours spent preparing traditional holiday delicacies. You may even be asked to help with this feast preparation process! If that’s the case, and you are put in charge of a producing a delectable dessert, here’s a recipe that is bound to add the perfect finishing touch to a hearty family dinner. Below is The Cabin Restaurant‘s recipe from The Cabin Cook Book for its world famous Buttermilk Pie. Enjoy!